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Metaversal Merchandising

SPONSERED PROJECT • INTERACTIVE MEDIA • PHYSICAL COMPUTING

Miniature and hidden worlds that offer immersive and memorable experiences tailored to specific products

Focus:
Interacteractive Environment
Date:
Sept 2022 - Dec 2022
Tools:
P5js
Arduino
Level:
High Fidelity
Team:
CJ Marguin
Harshini Ongole
Bingrui Zong

The team showcased "Metaversal Merchandising", also coined "Product Portals", to Cognizant as an innovative direction for future personalized in-store product-viewing experiences.

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The foundational goal: enhance product value beyond functionality through memorable experiences, thereby encouraging purchase.  This experiential approach not only adds personal value to the products but also elevates the store's impression.

To demonstrate the concept, we created a dollhouse prototype housing a ringtoss game for a toy store display, blending a physical scene with a digital background in a carnival-themed LEGO world.

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Completion of the ring toss rewards visual stories involving the toys being sold in the store. It is intended that the stories be swapped out to promote various toys.

Collage

The Discovery

While exploring the delightful treasures of the toy store, the customer is drawn by a faint, enchanting sound emanating from one of the shelves. Intrigued, they follow the sound and discover a uniquely decorated dollhouse nestled among the toys.

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The Unveiling

With curiosity, the customer opens the dollhouse door. The interior springs to life, revealing a miniature carnival game setup for ring toss. The center features lit-up bottles and the sides are adorned with various miniature toys. In the back, a seamless blend of physical and digital elements creates a captivating stage that merges into a LEGO world.

The Challenge

A whimsical sign reads, "Find the Button to Play." The customer eagerly examines the exterior to locate the button. With a wave of their hand in front of it, a ring is tossed from the LEGO world, landing on a bottle in the physical world, illuminating it brightly.​

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The Reward

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The curtain on the stage transitions to reveal a charming story scene featuring one of the toys available for purchase in the store. Instead of a mere advertisement, this engaging story is designed to captivate children's imaginations, offering them a delightful hidden show to discover and enjoy.

Reflection

I often struggle to create products that meet my high expectations. I set ambitious goals and then run out of time, leading to compromises on the final design. However, through this project, my advisor introduced me to the concept of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). I learned to set achievable milestones, ensuring that each one could be a functional product the team would be satisfied to showcase. If the team couldn't reach the next milestone, we always have the previous iteration to fall back on. This project helped me pace my work better and maintain multiple viable iterations to not only fall back on but also to help visualize the team's overall process.

Improvements

Exterior

  • A more whimsical design to blend better with the other toys but still feel like it stands out.

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  • Improve the viewing experience by addressing physical discomforts, such as the door frame height.

Story

  • Create a narrative that provides a setting and prompts the user to play rather than just a sign.

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  • Have more moving parts in the interior like having the physical curtain close rather than the digital curtain.

Controller

  • Rather than a sensor, create a joy-stick in the shape of a mailbox to be placed near the front of the dollhouse.​

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  • Add a difficulty curve to the game to making winning more rewarding.

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